Mardi Gras season is coming to a close, culminating on Shrove Tuesday (March 4, this year). If you haven't enjoyed Mardi Gras to the fullest yet, here is a roundup of the best recipes celebrating the season.

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The folks at NOLA.com saw an opportunity and ran with it.

Thanks to one of the longest king cake seasons possible, 2014 will start with a race to see which expands faster: New Orleans residents' waistlines or New Orleans bakeries' profits.

With Mardi Gras falling on March 4, 58 days will pass from Twelfth Night (Jan. 6), the first legitimate day on which to enjoy the Carnival pastry, through Fat Tuesday.

This year's special online 58 Days of King Cakes project led to much more than a photo gallery of king cakes that is guaranteed to make you drool. We learned a great deal about the state of king cakes in the greater New Orleans area.

If you can't make it to the Big Easy, you can still indulge in one of its signature dishes by making jambalaya at home. Ah, but which type of jambalaya? Butler includes recipes (and photos) for Acadia's Cajun Jambalaya; Jambalaya Across The Country; Vegan Jambalaya Bake.

In Pennsylvania, their Mardi Gras sweet is called a fastnicht. Sue Gleiter of PennLive.com says Shrove Tuesday or Fastnacht Day, falls on March 4, and plenty of churches, bakeries and supermarkets will be selling the pastries.

View full sizeUse cinnamon sugar fastnachts to make French toast.Sue Gleiter

Since the doughnut is a red-hot food trend right now, there's no reason the fastnacht also can't have its day in the spotlight.

You've got three days and lots of recipes to try to squeeze in. Enjoy!

Mardi Gras pastries

Paczki

Polish paczki are dense yet puffy fruit-filled doughnuts that have become a Fat Tuesday mainstay in Polish communities across the U.S. They're traditionally filled with rose hip jam or stewed plums, but you can use your favorite jam.

Fasnacht (or Fastnacht)

Fasnachts are yeasted doughnuts of German descent that bear the same name as the traditional pre-Lenten celebration, which translates as "fast night." They typically have no hole or filling and are dusted with powdered sugar. This recipe, like many Pennsylvania Dutch recipes for fasnacht, uses powdered sugar.

Beignets

Beignets are the classic pillowy, fried dough confections traditionally eaten at French Mardi Gras celebrations and now ubiquitous in Louisiana and other areas of the South. I recommend making the dough the night before so you can fry and eat them fresh first thing the next morning.

Cenci

Different from the other recipes featured here, Italian cenci (literally, "rags") are strips of fried pastry that are said to have been made from leftover scraps of dough. They are known by different names across Italy and are akin to elephant ears or funnel cake in the U.S.